Curtain Wall verses Structural Glass Facades
A curtain wall system is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, but merely keep the weather out and the occupants in. Structural Glazing Systems in Pune, in their simplest form, are types of curtain wall systems consisting of glass that is bonded or anchored back to a structure without the use of continuously gasketed aluminum pressure plates or caps. While closely related, there are differences between curtain walls and structural glass facades.
Curtain walls typically span only from floor to floor, the primary spanning member being an aluminum extrusion. Curtain walls are separate from the building framing system, but attached to and supported by it. Aluminum extrusions are typically used to construct a frame that secures some type of panel material, ranging from glass to composite metal panels and stone. The panel structure may be expressed, or completely covered on both the inside and outside of the building. Curtain walls most frequently employ a dry gasket strategy to provide the primary weather seal. Structural glass façade technology embraces a design objective of high transparency and expressed structure, and incorporates some type of glass as the cladding material. The facades are used in longer spanning applications where an aluminum extrusion as the primary spanning member becomes impractical or impossible. A variety of structural options are available to accommodate the spanning conditions. Structural Stick Glazing System In Pune.
The 22 structure is exposed, and thus becomes a dominant element of the façade design. Great attention is typically placed upon the detailing and craftsmanship of the supporting structure. There has been a consistent evolution towards a dematerialization of the facades. This resulted in the increasing use of tension element s in the structural systems, leading to the use of pure tension based systems like cable nets. Frameless glass systems, often called point-fixed or point-supported systems, are quite often used for the same reason. Framed panel or stick type systems utilizing aluminum extrusions are also used quite effectively in structural glass facades, but t hey are integrated in design with the structural systems that support them, and are substantially different than curtain wall systems.
Another big difference is in the strategy employed to provide the weather seal. Contemporary curtain wall systems employ complex extrusion designs that provide a rain screen and a supposedly pressure-equalized cavity, or cavities, to control water penetration and air infiltration. The design is intended to allow pressure differences to equalize within the extrusion cavities so that even if water penetrates the rain screen it will drain out of the system and not penetrate to the inside. Consistent with a minimalist approach, the weather seal typical of the glazing systems used on structural glass façades is a slender joint of silicone, field applied between adjacent glass panels; as with the structural systems, nothing is hidden.
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